My involvement with the scheme began in mid-December 2019, when the usual deluge of end-of-semester emails was interrupted by the announcement of a bursary being offered by ITMA to allow a student to spend a researcb week in the Archive.

My name is Kara O’Brien. I am a Ph.D. student at the Irish World Academy (IWA) at the University of Limerick. Originally from a little town outside of Denver, Colorado in the US, I began singing traditional Irish songs when I was very small, and for most of my life I have sung, collected, and studied traditional songs. I moved to Ireland four years ago to continue this work, first through an M.A. in Traditional Music Performance, and now through a Ph.D. focusing on traditional Irish hunting songs.

Although I had briefly visited the Archive a couple of times earlier in my research, I must admit that I was a bit intimidated by the idea of conducting any extended research there—at first in the mistaken belief that ITMA’s extensive online offerings contained most of their collection, and later because I found there was so much material available that it was difficult to know where to begin.

The trouble with hunting songs is that they tend to show up in all sorts of odd places. For the last three years, I have tracked them down on various recordings, through internet searches and, mostly, through word of mouth. I began studying them because 1) they have been largely neglected in the past, and 2) they contain all sorts of interesting bits of historical, cultural and political information buried in them. It is exactly these two things that make them so difficult to find, however. They have rarely been compiled, and they turn up in the guise of everything from political ballads to lengthy sporting rhymes to love songs. Fascinating, but difficult to find.

I arrived at the Archive on a bright January morning, with a collection of about 15 hunting songs, and the hope that during the week I would turn perhaps two or three new ones and some variations on the ones I had. By the time I got on the bus back to Limerick the following Saturday, I had a list of over 100 distinct songs.

Perhaps more importantly even than the songs, however, I gained a whole new appreciation of ITMA, its collection, its importance to the traditional music and dance of Ireland, and its remarkable and passionate staff.

Sitting in the lovely Georgian library for a week, I had a unique opportunity to experience the range of people who use the archive, and the vast resources and knowledge of the staff who help them make the most of the collection. I also gained a new understanding of the Archive as a part of the living tradition of Ireland’s music and dance, and its passionate dedication to collection and preserving all aspects of the tradition.

The following week this was demonstrated with even more force, when ITMA Director Liam O’Connor, Project Manager Grace Toland, and Field Recording Officer Brian Doyle arrived at the Irish World Academy for the Pop-Up Archive.

The two days that the Archive spent at the Academy were marked with growing excitement as students began to better understand what the Archive was and how they could make use of it. On the second day the Archive staff and myself gave a presentation about ITMA, its goals, purpose and the various resources available. Afterwards, the Archive recorded an interview with the great musician Mickey Dunne, showcasing the Archive’s commitment to preserving the living tradition, and allowing students to witness field-recording first-hand.

During the week the group was mentored by ITMA Assistant Librarian Róisín Conlon. After a week in ITMA she asked musicians Niamh McGrattan, fiddle, Aoileann O’Connor, fiddle, Naoise Ní Ghríofa, concertina, and Róisín Ní Chasaide, fiddle, to recount their personal highlights, and the collaborative projects they undertook, including recording a tune for Mary Bergin!

Is mise Róisín Ní Chasaide

agus rinne mé seachtain taithí oibre mar pháirt don idirbhliain san ITMA. I play the fiddle, sing sean-nós, and play the piano. I’ve been playing the fiddle since the age of four.

Traditional bands and soloists such as Steve Cooney, Martin Hayes, Liam O’Flynn, and composers like Seán O Riada, have had a great influence on my own playing. My father, Odhrán Ó Casaide, teaches me a lot of my traditional tunes and explains the history and culture of traditional music and the great Irish players that date back to O’Carolan, the Belfast Harp Festival, and Bunting.

The work experience in ITMA was very enjoyable and I learnt a lot in the space of a week: ag eagrú sa leabharlann, ag catalogú, ag seinm séiseanna nua le na cailíní eile – agus thaifead muid iad- agus ag eagrú ephemera ó Chontae Aontroma.

Bhí sé an-suimúil agus bhain mé sult as, bhí gach duine an-deas agus cabhrach chomh maith.                                                                                                                      — Róisín

Is mise Aoileann Ní Chonchubhair

agus rinne mé seachtain anseo san ITMA mar phairt do thaithí oibre don idirbhliain. I play the fiddle and concertina.

I enjoy listening to Irish music, especially fiddle playing and uilleann piping. Michael Coleman, Séan Keane, Frank O’Higgins, Noel Hill, Séamus Ennis and Lad O’Beirne are some of the musicians that influence me.

My family are all very encouraging, especially my grandad Mick O’Connor, as he always shares rare recordings and shows me old photographs of musicians from the older generations. Liam O’Connor has taught me a lot of my repertoire and is a great teacher and influence on me.

I attend a good few Irish music festivals during the summer including Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, Scoil Acla, Meitheal and fleadhanna.

D’fhoghlaim mé conas catalógú a dhéanamh, cúrsaí eagrúcháin sa leabharlann, ag eagrú póstaerí ón am atá thart, ag éisteacht le go leor ceol.                          — Aoileann

My name is Niamh Mc Grattan

and I’m a fiddle player from Clondalkin, Dublin. I began playing music because my Mam and most of my Dad’s family play various instruments.

I started to learn the fiddle when I was 9 years old in the Cobblestone Pub with Jackie Martin, and later on with Liam O’Connor. As well as lessons, in the summer I go to music summer schools such as the Willie Clancy Summer School in Clare and Scoil Acla in Achill Island.  It’s great listening to musicians such as Michael Coleman, Kevin Burke, Tommy Peoples and more.

I went to ITMA for a week for work experience. It was really interesting to learn about the archive and how everything works. During the week we did cataloguing, CD and book shelving, ephemera sorting and we recorded a tune using the archive’s filming equipment.

All in all, it was a great week and I really enjoyed it.                                            — Niamh

And the recording for Mary Bergin ….

As you know the Archive is hosting three special concerts in the National Concert Hall to celebrate the donation of the Liam O’Flynn Collection to ITMA.

As part of the preparations ITMA Director Liam O’Connor would like to put a spotlight on some of the hidden gems that have been uncovered in the Liam O’Flynn Collection. One of the most noteworthy discoveries comes in the form of two previously unpublished jigs composed by Liam O’Flynn The Return of the Pedalboard and The Piper’s Stone. ITMA Archivist Maeve Gebruers has shared news of the collection including Liam’s compositions in the latest issue of An Píobaire

Among the Liam O’Flynn papers are a number of original compositions by the piper. Working in collaboration with Na Píobairí Uilleann, ITMA is delighted to publish two of Liam’s compositions for the first time in this edition of An Píobaire. Contextual notes in O’Flynn’s own words accompany each tune.

Maeve Gebruers, ‘Liam O’Flynn collection in ITMA’, An Píobaire 16, no. 1 (2020)

In order to make the material even more accessible Liam O’Connor decided to make a recording of these compositions and circulate it to the artists taking part in the concerts as an inspiration for their set lists But, who would ITMA task to create the recording for Mary Bergin and the other performers?

Of course he left it in the very capable hands of our four TY musicians! The ladies embraced the task with enthusiasm and precision, and the proof is in the playing.

And so here we proudly present Liam O’Flynn tunes The Return of the Pedalboard and The Piper’s Stone played by Aoileann O’Connor, fiddle, Róisín Ní Chasaide, fiddle, Naoise Ní Ghríofa, concertina, and Niamh McGrattan, fiddle. Recorded at the Irish Traditional Music Archive, January 2020.

The Irish Traditional Music Archive began experimenting with studio recording in 1993, soon after it had moved from a single room in Eustace Street to new rented premises on two floors of 63 Merrion Square in central Dublin. No structural alterations could be carried out on the historic building, but under the supervision of Brian Masterson of Windmill Lane Studios, a basic recording facility was installed in two rooms of the top floor. The aim was to produce audio recordings for public listening within the Archive of performers who hadn’t been widely recorded. Aidan McGovern and Glenn Cumiskey were sound engineers, and Derry fiddle player Dermot McLaughin, then Traditional Music Officer of the Arts Council and now Chief Executive of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust (and Chairman of ITMA), was the subject of early experiments.

Two small and low-tech video cameras, remotely controlled by the engineers or by then ITMA secretary Sadhbh Nic Ionnraic, were wall-mounted in the performance room to make a simple visual record of performance for the use of students. The purpose was not to produce material for television or video publications but to record for study such elements of performance as posture and movement, and elements of technique such as bowing and ornamentation.

Each recording session lasted a few hours and, as well as recording music and song, interviews were conducted by Nicholas Carolan with the musicians and singers regarding their own musical history and their influences. The full audio and video recordings are available for reference listening and viewing within ITMA.

ITMA is grateful to Dermot McLaughlin, to Clare concertina player Mary MacNamara (who was then teaching music in Dublin, as she is now in Tulla, Co Clare), to singer Jim Mac Farland of Derry (then also living and working in Dublin), to singer Barry Gleeson of Dublin, and to the Four-Star Trio of Cork (Con Ó Drisceoil, accordion; Johnny McCarthy, fiddle; Pat Ahern, guitar) for permission to bring these ITMA 1993 video recordings to a wider audience.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 December 2011

This is the Irish Traditional Music Archive’s contribution to Ireland’s National Music Day – Love: Live Music (21 June 2012). It is a session of music and song by off-duty staff members of the Archive, recorded ‘live’ on video in the ITMA basement studio at 73 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. It has been produced by ITMA Field-Recordings Officer Danny Diamond.

The first premises of the Irish Traditional Music Archive when it was founded in 1987 were in what had been the Irish Quaker Library, in no 6 Eustace Street in Temple Bar, Dublin 1, a complex which then housed a number of arts organisations and is now the Irish Film Institute. During its foundation years there, the first video documentation of ITMA, Tomb or Treasure House, was filmed in September 1988 by Cathal Goan, an RTÉ radio producer from Belfast who was then training as a television producer-director with the national broadcaster. Selections from a resultant VHS copy of his documentary are reproduced here with his permission.

Cathal would go on from television production and direction to become Editor of Irish-Language Programming in RTÉ in 1990; to found the national Irish-language television channel TG4 in 1994; to become Director of Television in RTÉ in 2000; and to become Director General of RTÉ from 2003 to 2011. He is now Adjunct Professor in the School of Irish Language, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics in University College Dublin. In his spare time Cathal was, for twelve years, a highly effective Chairman of the ITMA Board.

From the video, it is striking on the one hand how the essentials of the ITMA project were in place from the very beginning, but also how future developments, and especially the transformative effects of digitisation and the Internet, were as yet undreamed of. It was also unknown that television crews would be filming regularly in ITMA over the next twenty-plus years for the archival television series Come West along the Road on RTÉ and Siar an Bóthar on TG4.

With thanks to Cathal Goan, Paddy Glackin, Dermot McLaughlin, Seán Potts, Seóirse Bodley, Adrian Munnelly, & the others who contributed to the making of the trainee film.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 August 2012

To celebrate Love : Live music on National Music Day 2013 the Archive issued an invitation to Ceoltoiri Chluain Tarbh, a vibrant group of musicians from the northside of Dublin, to participate in a recording session.  Nine musicans, ranging in age from 9 to 25 came to the studio on the 18 June 2013 and recorded the tracks presented here.  The Lonergan sisters, Áine (fiddle) and Aisling (accordion), joined in a trio with guitarist John Flynn.  John also played with fiddle player Cathal Caulfield and then sang a song.  His sister Sarah played concertina while Aoife Nic Domhnaill played two tracks on the fiddle.  The O’Grady family were the youngest representatives of the club.  Aisling, aged 11, played whistle and flute while her sisters Rachel (14) and Eve (9) played a duet on fiddle and concertina respectively.

More information on Ceoltóirí Chluain Tarbh can be found from https://ceoltoiri.ie/

Our thanks to Maurice Mullen and the musicians from Ceoltóirí Chluain Tarbh for their participation in this recording project.